St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-03-07
MARTHA WASHINGTON.
She Was u Poor SpcIler and Her
Grammar Would Not Pass Mus

she was Poor SpcIler and Her
Grammar Would Not Pass Mus
ter.
Cosmopolitan
Martha Washington was not an educated
woman in the sense of to-day. She did
not spell well, and her grammar would
hardly stand the parsing of the public
schools Copies of TWO of her letters to
her sister, Mrs. Bassett. lie before me.
They were written at about the beginning
OF the Revolution. She began one
thus: Il have wrote to you several times.
IN hopes it would put you in mind of
me. but find it has not had its intended
effect" Further on she adds: '"rhe rivers
has never been frozen hard enough to
walk upon the ice since l came here"
Among the misspelt words Of the letter are:
''Navey" for navy, ''loded'' for loaded,
''coles" for Goals. distant" for destined,
''clere" for clear. "heare'' for here,
''plesed" for pleased, and ''great1ul' for
grateful. Company she spells com
paney," and persuaded ''perSwaded'
In the fac smile of a letter that she
wrote to William b. Reed, of New York.
i'll TIT. | see that she knew no other
punctuation mark than the dash, that the
apostrnphe was stranger to her, and that
her writing, though not ileglble, was far
from beautiful OF elegant The use of the
capital was as embarrassing to her as the
use OF the punctuation point, and her let
tiers look as though the capitals had been
shaken out of mammoth pepper-box and
permitted to lie wherever they fell.
One OF her letters, commencing "My
Dear Fanny" was lately communicated by
Rev. FL. f. Hayden. of Pennsylvania to
The Magazine of American History" 1t
is dated mount Vernon. Aug. z, 1854"
and the verbatim spelling and punctuation
are preserved in the publication. Some of
the sentences begin with capitals and some
without She writes of My little nelly"
referring probably to Nellie Gusts, and in
the same line says that Tut is the same
claver (clever) boy you left him." thus cap
italizlng the boys name. while she gives no
capital to that of the girl. She writes
Fanny that the General had received
letter from her papa dated at richmond"
begins the next sentence with small letter.
and in it capitaliZes brothers, +" Family
and General"
A person uses his best grammar while
writing, and he who makes mistakes here
makes more in conversation. Martha
Washington may have been we'll educated
in the school of society and in that of life.
She was certainly not so in books and lit
erature. There was no library to speak of
at Mt Vernon. and Gen. Washington was
more OF an outdoor man than student.
We have no record of his wife being
reader, save that she read a chapter of her
Bible every morning. She knew nothing
about novels, and the American monthly
magazine, the great family educator of the
present, was not yet born.
Martha Washington had, however. the
best advantages of the day. Her whole
life was spent among learned men and
bright women, but there is no record left
that she was brilliant in social conversation,
and you will read in vain for the reported
bon m0ts of Martha Washington. The
truth seems to be that Martha Washington
thought woman's sphere was home, and
that knitting and cooking were more I'M
portant than writing letters and knowl-
edge OF French. She is said to have been
good business woman and to have man-
aged the large estate of her first husband
very ably before she handed her share of it
over to George Washington.